Just got dropped in a (normal) B race as a mid B and quit. I wasn’t able to warm up properly and legs felt rubbish.
Warm up - it really helps.
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I have just finished the 18:00 Category Enforcement Race.
Normally I’m Cat C htt ps://zwiftpower.com/profile.php?z=1277696
Average 213watts /3.11wkg
The minimum category I could enter for this event was Cat B
I held onto the pack for the first 2km, then I got dropped.
There were 5 of us who were in a small group. After 5km, we were more than a minute behind.
After completing the first lap i was dropped again, and on my own for the remainder of the race
I finished almost 8mins down on the winner.
It wasn’t fun, and i won’t be doing it again
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I was super happy to see y’all roll this out, however I’m very disappointed in my first ride. I was bumped from C to B and I got completely crushed. I pulled up some of the C results, and some of the top finishers there have #'s that blow mine away, yet I’m in B. I get the whole “ride hard thing” but I’m 58, and not getting much faster. this would be a blast if I was 35 again. All in all a terrible experience, and not just because I didn’t win, I was dusted! I’d just like to be able to race with a decent sized pack, instead I stayed on one guys wheel for as long as I could. Terrible!
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I think I was with you ( I recognize “Carson”), I feel the exact same. I won’t be racing if these are the new cats, we were crushed! Pull up the results and some individuals from the C cat. I did, and many of them have higher historic w/kg than I do, I don’t get it.
I may start looking at new platforms I’ve been hearing good things about.
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This is a good example of why I don’t think race length should ever double just because you move up a category.
Please make sure you complete the feedback form at the start of this thread; all feedback is important.
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Will the incoming changes make a difference to you guys in terms of FTP floor?
I’m not sure i have reached that part in the 973 posts yet 
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Fair comment hahaha. Look in this thread: Category Enforcement Trial - Next Steps [February 2022] - #50 by James_Zwift
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This bit?
A: (4w/kg OR 5.4w/kg MAP) AND 250w CP
B: (3.2w/kg OR 4.1w/gk MAP) AND 200w CP
C: (2.5w/kg OR 3.9w/kg MAP) AND 150w CP
If so i’m 3.11wkg and 3.23 w/kg MAP and 223w CP
So that would put me back to Cat C?
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95% of your best 20 min effort was 3.19w/kg, in a 50 minute race, which was a race with mixed efforts.
Are you trying to tell us your FTP isn’t above 3.2w/kg? Even by the old system you would be upgraded if you went hard and didn’t manage your power. Remember that the new system is more accurate, considers more of your power profile, and also looks at your efforts outside of events.
Yes being at the bottom of a cat is hard. We’ve ascertained that. It being hard is not the same as saying you belong in the cat below - because when you are in the cat below loving life, you are making the experience worse for a multitude more people who belong there.
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Your cat was likely determined by your race on 2/8 where you had markedly better 20min wkg and 1 and 5 minute power than you did today.
On that event, I got the new FTP message - 217w @ 69kg, so 3.19
This is not about being at the bottom of the cat, i understand someone has to be, but i may as well do a solo ride, as that was what tonights race was. There’s no point taking part if i’m +07:40 behind the leader
The only consolation for those that have been promoted and are unable to make the transition and stick with the faster pace, is that the power data placing you in the higher category is from a rolling 60 day period, as things stand.
It’s a long two months if your best power data has been recently, but if you can’t match that data, the chance of a category relegation improves.
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I was crushed so bad, it’s not even worth signing up. I may as well just jump on Zwift and ride and not “enter” anything. in the end it’s the same as I’m basically riding alone. I’m also still confused why some people in C have higher #'s than me and stayed in C. I was completely crushed in the ride I did, and no matter how much work I do at my age, I will never bridge that gap to even be mid pack of the “new” B.
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Why did you delete that! I was reading it - and it seemed quite reasonable. Having done two of the test events now, personally I’m liking it. I’m still middle of the field, but its a middle with more people around to work with/chase/try not to be caught by. I’ll probably never win, but now I’m getting to race rather than just time-trial behind the long gone lead pack of sandbaggers.
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Why do not consider maybe it was just an off night? Maybe look at the event results and see if you think that if you had output an effort like you did earlier this month with 3.4wkg and over 5wkg 1-minute power it might have moved you up in the standings?
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It’s hard to judge, as when you’re 1min behind after 5km and no-one to share the work with, it’s hard to give it your best.
in saying that, it was only my 8th best output, so certainly room for improvement
Edit - 6th best now the lightening bolt has turned blue
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Double draft is keeping too many people together too long in these races. Might not help the person in last place but having a bunch of targets in the sights scattered in the front of you is helpful. Whether that is motivating someone to go a bit harder to share draft, or dropping the pace a tad to do the same.
Also I suspect some are picking an events that dont suit there profile, which is important when playing at the bottom of a Cat.
Hopefully we will get new test races; races that do not have double draft.
Because yeah, if you’re on the lower scale of a cat, and it’s a smaller group of event riders, and you are already on the weaker side of things…
There’s literally no recovering.
Is scaling different cats based on finishing performance the same topic as this? I don’t know, but… it’s certainly under discussion.
I would love to get a chance to see what kind of data zwift collects on these tests.
I think it would be interesting to see people in my case that got bumped up, have done a race and are so far off the pace.
That said; that’s going to happen to someone somewhere, and the only real solution I personally can think of is… more cats.
As an aside to Dean’s comment right now, well yes, but also limited in scope (like I’m only able to do two of these races likely due to my physical condition, and that they’re off-schedule for me).
But those of us that are getting to do these tests and end up in races that have say… 25 people (or less!, I saw a Cat A the other night with like 6 people registered).
Those of us at the bottom of the bracket… likely aren’t going to register unless it’s stuffed fully of people, where we… knock on wood, would see someone and actually get to have some enjoyable pack dynamics with a handful of others.
These tests are just a bit difficult for some of us, because we’re in a less common time zone and only get to experience a race with a handful of people; which I think might also kind of skew our experiences a tad. (double draft of course not helping)
Unfortunately you have to do a lot of back-reading to understand fully (and even then it’s a moving target), but there are more numbers at play then you can see on ZP or in-game w/Zwift, so why you got bumped is probably your CP or another stat that most of us don’t truly understand.
These are test events and already changes are planned for the next round (not sure if that’s next week or after the 3 weeks of test events), so don’t get too discouraged. Fill out your feedback form and try again once things get sorted. In the meantime, you can still race in the hundreds of other races that aren’t ‘test events’.
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